Master BOL

StarShip supports consolidating shipments so that you can ship multiple shipments, each with different final destinations but going to the same distribution center, under a master Bill of Lading. The consolidated shipment is called the "master shipment" and the individual shipments it contains are called "child shipments". Though the child shipments can be both freight and parcel shipments, the master shipment must be a freight shipment.

Notes

• WorldEase shipments and Consolidated shipments are incompatible and cannot be combined in any way.

In this topic

Distribution Center Codes

Location Attribute for Customers

Consolidation Option

Create the Consolidated Shipment

Master/Child Indicator

Deleting a Child Shipment

Distribution Center Codes

Each distribution center is identified by a Distribution Center Code (DC Code). The DC Codes can be entered per customer in Maintain Customer, entered "on-the-fly", mapped from the source interface, or imported.

DC codes are assigned to child shipments and then used to locate and add these shipments to the master shipment.

Location Attribute for Customers

In Maintain Customers, a location attribute has been added for the Customer record : Distribution Center. Each customer address can be assigned  to one distribution center/DC code.

When you enter DC codes in Maintain Customers, StarShip saves them to an internal list and uses them to populate the Consolidation Code drop-down list when creating consolidated shipments.

DC Codes are limited to 10 characters.

Tip : If you plan to use the Shipment Consolidation feature often, you can set up the distribution centers for all customers now in order to make shipment consolidation easier when you ship.

1. Select Maintain > Customers and double-click the customer record.
2. Next to the Location Type field, click the    button to select or edit the Distribution Center. For more information, see Location Type.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Select "Distribution Center" as this location's attribute by checking the check box next to "Distribution Center" and then enter the DC Code below. The DC code is limited to 10 characters. Click OK.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   You can do this for each Customer to whom you'll be shipping consolidated shipments.

Consolidation Option

Under Shipment Options, you'll find the Consolidation Option, which designates the distribution center where the child shipment will go.

It has a drop-down list that is populated by the DC Codes that were added in Maintain > Customers > Location Type > Attributes.

There are a couple of ways to populate the Consolidation Code field :

Select an existing code.

You can select from the Distribution Codes you added in Maintain Customers :

Type in a new Distribution Code on-the-fly.

You can type a code directly into the Shipment Options > Consolidation > Consolidation Code field. There is one thing to remember when entering DC codes manually, and that is --  for DC codes not entered through Maintain Customers, you will need to also manually enter the DC Code when creating a consolidated shipment ... it can't be selected from the Consolidated Code drop-down list. So if you type a new code here :

... then you have to type the DC code into the Consolidation Code field to find shipments assigned to that code when creating the shipment, as shown here :

Map the Consolidation Code field

You can automatically populate this field by mapping it to a field from the source interface or by mapping it to a fixed value in Setup > Source Interface > "Your Interface" > Customize Interface.

For more information about field mapping in Customize Interface, see Field Mapping.

Import the DC Codes

You can also use the Import Data feature to import DC codes with the customer record.

Create the Consolidated Shipment

StarShip simplifies consolidated shipments by automating the process for you. Create and process the child shipments as you normally would, but you assign a DC Code to the shipment. When you create the master shipment, StarShip will find all shipments based on the DC Code so you can easily add them to the consolidated shipment..

1. For each child shipment, select the Shipment Option "Consolidation" and select or enter the Consolidation Code. Ship/Process the shipment, and any other shipment you want to include in the master shipment.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. From the File menu, select New Consolidated Shipment. (This option only appears if you are registered for at least one freight carrier.)
   
   
   
   
   
   
3. Select the DC code from the drop-down list. If you entered the DC Code on-the-fly, type it in. Click Find Shipments.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Select the shipments to add to the consolidated shipment.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
5. Click Create Shipment. The new master shipment is created and opens in the Shipping window. All the packages from the child shipments are added to master shipment. You can modify and rearrange the packaging and pallets as you wish.
   
   Note : If you click Shipment > New or Shipment > New Consolidated Shipment now, and you answer "No" to the "Do you want to save this shipment?" prompt, you are just clearing the current shipment from the screen. The child shipments have already been associated with the Master Shipment ID (shown circled below), and the master shipment has been saved as a draft.  If you go to the 'New Consolidated Shipment' window, you'll notice the child shipments will not be available to ship.  
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. On the Shipment Options tab, you can select the Consolidation option and click "Show Child Shipments" to launch the Open Shipments dialog populated with the child shipment detail.
   Note : If you make changes to the child shipment, or if you delete a child shipment, the change will not be reflected in the master shipment. The child shipment becomes part of the master shipment once the master is created.
   For more information about deleting shipments, see Deleting a Child Shipment.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Continue to process the shipment as you would any Freight shipment; the BOL will print when you Ship/Process the shipment .
   
   
   

Master/Child Indicator

A shipment can be identified as either a Master Shipment or Child Shipment under Options > Consolidation on the Open Shipment window  :

This example shows a child shipment :

Deleting a Child Shipment

Because the child shipment becomes part of the master shipment, the master shipment will retain the contents of a child shipment even if you delete that child. The original child shipment is disconnected from the master once you add it to a master shipment.

To delete a child shipment, you should delete the master shipment and recreate it without that child shipment.